Take two

Clinton, Anderson County meet again on Friday

February 10, 2021 by Collin Riggs

Clinton High School plays to cement its second-place seed this week as they face Central, and Anderson County High School travels to Jellico for a non-district game.

Later in the week, Clinton and Anderson County face each other again after last week’s encounter ended decisively with a Clinton win.

On Tuesday, Feb. 9, Clinton traveled to Central to face the Bobcats for a second time after beating them 59-50 in January.

Chris Lockard said that, for the boys, the games are going to require very opposing approaches.

“Both of those games are going to be very opposites,” he said. “Central is a much bigger team that’s very quick and athletic.

“They have a fantastic perimeter player that you have to contest all over the place. They’re a dangerous team. We’re going to have to go over and not only play well offensively, but contain their athleticism. A big question will be whether we can control or at least play 50/50 on the boards. They’re a strong rebounding team so we have to do our job to keep them off the glass.”

Lockard contrasted that with Anderson County, who is much more similar to the Dragons themselves.

“AC is much more execution oriented. They have deliberate steps and deliberate breaks and actions in their offense. Defensively they can be multi-faceted. They have some guys that can really put up big numbers. It’s going to be two big games for us. Typically at this point you want to be playing non-league games, but with Covid, well, it is what it is. If we win one of the two, it’ll put us in a lock for second place – but I’d rather just win them both to keep that momentum going. With both games being on the road, it’s going to be tough.”

Meanwhile for the Lady Dragons, Alicia Smith said that the team is more focusing on specifics of their own play, since they’re already expecting to be seeded lower.

“Regardless of where we end up, we’re going to be in that four or five spot. It hurt us not having Jaz when we played Halls back-to-back. To move forward, we need to keep our momentum up and stay on the floor. We have to be able to work on stopping the second chance points and giving up offensive rebounds. I think Jaz and Naiyah have done a great job with that lately, but we have to keep getting better at that. We’ve got to keep up the rhythm. We like to put new things in near the end of the season to keep people off balance, and the girls are doing a great job responding to that right now.”

Smith said that two of her younger players have also been key in the team’s success as they step up to take pressure off the seniors, and she expect them to continue being crucial as the season continues.

“Belle Starnes and Lydia Snyder have been key players here lately. Most teams are going to focus on Jaz and Naiyah, but when those girls step up, it makes it a lot harder. Those two have done a great job in stepping up offensively lately, and are a key part of our success.”

Meanwhile, Anderson County travels to face Jellico on Tues. Feb 9 before hosting Clinton later in the week.

Nicky Anosike said she’s approaching the game the same as she would any other, and that she’s not going to let the rivalry stress her out.

“I approach every game the same. I don’t have the mental roadblock a lot of the girls have where they think about how big the rivalry is and then stress about it. I approach every game with the same level of seriousness. We went back and watched the game film and saw some mistakes we needed to clean up. It’s just getting our girls to understand that, if we clean all of these mistakes up – we can win.

“We’re working on the same issues that have plagued us all season, and even before the season started. It’s small things. Making layups has been our Achilles Heel this season. Turnovers have been the same. Rebounding. We’re just not a good rebounding team. I try to explain to my team that it’s nothing to do with jumping ability. It’s nothing to do with athleticism. We’ve been going over technique and learning how to box out. It’s been a learning curve, but we’re going to keep working on taking care of the ball and rebounding.”

Finally, head Coach Derek Wallace said of this week’s games that he’s just trying to keep the team’s morale up, and trying to stay positive.

“When you’re at rock bottom, everything looks pretty good. There’s a lot of that going on. I think we’re still in a pretty good spot mentally for the results we’ve had lately. We just have to feel the win again and get that going in the other direction. I think if we can do what we were doing earlier in the season, then we’re going to be fine.

“My main thing is to stay positive and make sure the kids don’t get too down on themselves. These guys expect to win and we were winning in the past before the shutdown. The momentum we had early in the season has been lost and they’re trying to find it again. These guys believe in themselves as basketball players, and they believe in the team – and we’re just trying to find a break right now. We’ve not shot it well lately, and we’re due one of those nights. We’re not a bad shooting team, but we’ve looked like it lately.”